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Joined:
February 2015
Posts: 70
Location: Western Sonoma County | Just got a nice Preacher. My local luthier's done a very decent job of setup, but I think someone intimately familiar with these may be able to tweak it even better. I'm about an hour north of SF in west Sonoma County. Any suggestions?
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Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6994
Location: Jet City | What is it you think can be improved on? If a luthier's already done the important parts (rod adjustments, making sure frets are level, etc) and you're just talking about the action, you can do it yourself pretty easy. It can be a bit more difficult on the older bridges though. Which do you have? |
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January 2006
Posts: 1118
Location: NW Washington State | Darn, I was hoping that Dan Francisco was a new solidbody expert we hadn't heard about.
I think JB's guitar might have the bridge with black cover and slots with screws underneath to hold the saddles down.
I started to write about how to adjust those, but realized I didn't really know enough to explain it. A good luthier could figure it out, but it would take more time than he/she might spend on the average flat-rate setup job. I wonder if there's a factory document here or on ovationtribute about solidbody setup?
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Joined:
February 2015
Posts: 70
Location: Western Sonoma County | Thanks guys. The simpler adjusts like action and intonation I'm comfortable with. I'll even hazard an occasional truss rod adjustment. I did find someone here in the Santa Rosa area. This Preacher has an interesting problem. Down the bass side, the neck is straight, but down the high side there's a very slight but perceptible bump at about the fourth fret that limits how low I can go with the action before I get fret buzz on the uppermost frets. The guitar is completely playable, I'm just a perfectionist. The only solution appears to be a re-fret and planing to level things out. Anyway, found someone who can do that. He's worked on a number of older Ovation electrics and indicated that neck issues seem to happen a little too often, and in his opinion despite the cool electronics, this fact limited Ovation's success in that area. Before I proceed, however, I'd be happy to part with it if another OFC member is interested. I know at least one OFC member out there was chasing this guitar on eBay along with me. It's in very very nice condition otherwise. Damon: I poached your signature line in conversation recently. Got a big laugh. |
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Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6994
Location: Jet City | jbblunck - 2015-04-26 7:20 PM Damon: I poached your signature line in conversation recently. Got a big laugh. I'm sure I poached it too. FWIW, I haven't had a neck issue on my Ovation solidbody for 32 years... I've bought quite a few solidbodies in my day and neck issues are pretty rare. As a matter of fact, my experience is exactly opposite of his. For me it's the electronics that are usually suspect, especially in the Deacon/Breadwinner. |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1118
Location: NW Washington State | I haven't seen neck issues in my sample of about a dozen of the solidbodies from the Preacher era. I wonder if he might have seen the old hollowbodies and the later Korean stratazoids- they have different necks.
If you're really thinking of planing and refretting, I'd try hacking away at just the problem section first if there's still some meat to the frets. Have you tried a fret rocker on the problem area?
I wonder if anyone has tried a PLEK fret leveling on an O solidbody. If not I think Damon should have it done on one of his so we can all learn about it.
Jerome has the Preacher and other solidbody manuals, with setup instructions: http://ovationtribute.com/Owner%27s%20Manual.html I'm still not sure about the angle of the bridge. The manuals mention the adjustment on the back, but don't really say if a sharp angle or flat relative to the body is best. |
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Joined:
February 2015
Posts: 70
Location: Western Sonoma County | Thanks for the insight. As the frets are as fat as they were on the day the guitar was made, I'm going to try replaning them first, with an eye towards concentrating on the bump. Hopefully that will do the trick. |
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Joined:
February 2015
Posts: 70
Location: Western Sonoma County | Finally! Frets re-planed and my Preacher plays like it should. Chris at People's Music in Sebastopol did the deed. Now I can see why folks wax poetic about those long, vintage necks, playable all the way up two octaves. Anyway, thanks for the various input. Happy that the solution was actually pretty simple. |
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Preacher Expert Dan Francisco Area
